Wonderful, wonderful weather all week : days in the high twenties and nights around 13. The sun setting every night as a fiery ball in a wall of orange. Mt Bartle Frere framed cobalt blue against the glowing sky. The paperbarks dressed in new shiny bark, regrown since TC Yasi, glow orange then red in the sun’s last light.

Tonight before I could remove my gumboots the full moon was rising above the melaleucas and they glowed silvery white in the moonlight. Life’s all about change!Some changes are not welcome. Our neighbour Rick Gore continues to bring truck of Jubilee Bridge debris to dump on his land. He is using it as fill to widen the road. Dust has become a problem. My neighbours told me they rang Councillor Nolan and asked for a water truck to dampen the dust and although it was promised it did not turn up.

On Friday my co-worker and I continued to have problems with grit in our eyes. Poor Dee who lives directly across the road has had to wash and dust everything before she uses it.

Ruth Lipscomb wrote a letter to the editor of the Innisfail Advocate concerned about the application that Rick Gore has before CCRC for the rezoning of this land. Rumours about the possible end use after tourism facility has been granted, abound. The most recent one is that the property could be used for a Biker’s Retreat. Whatever the proposal ends up as the majority of residences at Coquette Point are opposed to any rezoning to tourist facility.Cassowary chicks of Dad 2 continue to walk together. Occasionally they separate and the whistling cries echo around the forest until the happy chirps tell me they have found each other. Martin saw them coming out of the ocean side of the mangrove forest early one morning perhaps that is where they go to sleep.

They turn up here about 6.30am for a feed from the stations and then go for a walk on the beach and in the heat of the day they find a cool spot under the trees..

Another chick which I have called ‘Captain Starlight’ is of great concern. He steps out onto the road in front of cars bringing them to a standstill and then quickly comes around to the driver’s window and begs for food. Obviously someone has been feeding him from a car. He is very skinny and these bushranging tactics will surely end in tragedy. John Wilson rang the cassowary hotline. I have mentioned his behaviour to the rangers.Lots of tidal change this week from a low of .44 on Friday to a high of 2.31. The little fiddler crabs were happily feeding on the detritus only to find they were dinner for the mangrove kingfisher and grey reef heron.

The low tides exposed the belly of the river where massive amounts of new sand has covered the detritus that was deposited after the wet season’s floods.

The river is fresh and clean and the detritus sandwiches in a nutrient rich layer for the bottom feeders to enjoy.

Cheers for now,

Yvonne C.

Liz

13/8/2011 12:46:23 pm

Another wonderful update from Coquette Point Yvonne. It is fascinating following the cassowary chicks progress. When there is more than one, the separation from the parent is a gradual one.